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Tasered While Black

Tasered While Black

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Our plan, to track all incidents of taser torture against black folks....

Have you or a member of your family ever been tasered by the police? Was it reported in the newspaper, police report, or other news outlet? Write: TasedWhileBlack@gmail.com and tell us what happened. Want to make a donation to Tasered While Black? Write us at: TasedWhileBlack@gmail.com We will be glad to hear from you.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Taser Torture of Blacks in Wichita, Kansas

BY DION LEFLER The Wichita Eagle

Taser Torture in Wichita, Kansas

Dion Lefler over at the Wichita Eagle is reporting on how Black people are five to six times as likely as white people to have Tasers used on them by Wichita police, according to city statistics released Monday.

Dion reports:

More black people than white people were stunned with Tasers in the first seven months of 2010, the most recent statistics immediately available.

Police Chief Norman Williams said he thinks the numbers don't necessarily show that officers are more likely to use a Taser on black suspects than white suspects.

"It doesn't matter what race or gender you are, if you comply with the officer, you're not going to get tased," he said.

According to the U.S. Census, black people make up 11.5 percent of the city population.

Over the past five years, since Tasers were introduced into the police arsenal, 42.2 percent of people they've been used on are black, city records show.

Non-Hispanic white people make up 64.5 percent of the city population and 46 percent of the people who were stunned with Tasers, the records show.

The race statistics were part of a larger report presented Monday to the City Manager's Review Board, a panel appointed to try to build trust between police and residents.

In addition to the report, the board received information on the medical effects of Tasers and a demonstration of the usually nonlethal weapon, which fires darts attached by wires to a high-voltage electrical source. A person hit with Taser darts generally loses the ability to resist officers until the current is cut.

The report showed that in 2007, the city's record year for Taser usage, the weapon was used on 556 white people and 475 black people. That gap has been narrowing ever since.

In 2008, Tasers were used on 431 white people and 386 black people.

In 2009, they were used on 119 white people and 113 black people.

And for the period in 2010 from Jan. 1 until July 22, where the city records stopped, Tasers had been used on 54 black people, compared with 52 white people.

Sgt. Robert Bolin, who briefed the Review Board, said after the meeting that nearly all cases of Taser usage are in response to calls of a crime in progress and that police have no control over the racial breakdown of the people involved, be they suspects, victims or witnesses.

"We have no control over who decides to resist and who doesn't," he said.

The records also show that Taser use has declined dramatically since peaking in 2007, a year after the weapons were introduced in Wichita.

What We Think About Taser Abuse

We are not totally against taser use as an alternative to deadly force. We are however against taser abuse by police who would use a taser on the young, elderly, pregnant or physically frail; people offering passive, rather than active resistance; and restrained prisoners. The publisher of this blog is available to conduct presentations on the issue of taser use for police agencies, governmental bodies, and groups in the U.S. and abroad. Contact him via email at: TasedWhileBlack@gmail.com

Two differing views

TWB publisher says: Now that the maker of the TASER is advising police officers to avoid shooting suspects in the chest with the 50,000-volt weapon, saying that it could pose an extremely low risk of an "adverse cardiac event." There will probably be more Taser Torture victims being shot in the back and in the head."

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Tracking Taser Torture

Hat/Tip to Villager over at Electronic Village for all of his work to address the issue of taser abuse and torture in America. Check out some of his many post.It will serve as a historical reference point for any congressional hearing or United Nations hearing on Taser Torture in America.

Marine Corps hand-to-hand combat instructor tough-guy is taken down by taser.

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Jena 6 Tasered

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Factoid - What Is A Taser

A taser is an electroshock weapon that can stun a targeted subject from a distance by firing electrodes on the end of long thin wires. Read More HERE

The shock frazzles the body's electric signals, contracting muscles and incapacitating the target.

Each individual shock lasts up to five seconds, at the discretion of the shooter, allowing police to gain control of chaotic situations.

Aimed by a laser sight, the two probes have a range of 21 feet and are tethered to the gun by lightly insulated wire. Both need to strike skin or clothing to be effective.

Fabric two inches thick or more, though, can render the jolt ineffective.

Tasers can also be used without the probes, by placing the guns end directly onto a suspect's skin, and firing.

The weapons also have small microprocessors inside them that record every time an office shoots them, and how long the shocks lasted.

As the manufacturer has produced lighter and smaller pistol-shaped stun guns in recent years, police departments have purchased Tasers with increased frequency.

--H/T Bill D'Agostino

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Factoid

Laser-Related Deaths

No federal agency keeps track of injuries or deaths related to Taser usage. Amnesty International says since 2001 it has registered 270 "Taser-related deaths," or incidents in which a Taser was used prior to a suspect's death "but not deemed the primary cause of death by a coroner or medical examiner."